Real-Time System Helps Plant 'Seeds' Against Prostate Cancer

Radiation oncologists and urologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia have begun using a real-time system to implant radiation-emitting seeds in prostate cancer patients.

While the system, which is made by Nucletron, a technology company based in The Netherlands, is only being used for imaging and planning purposes so far, it ultimately will help with the actual placement of the seeds. To date, Jefferson is the first medical center in the Delaware Valley to begin employing the new system.

The multidisciplinary team of urologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiation physicists and others involved in using the device are hoping that the new federal Food and Drug Administration-approved technology will make an already good system even better, adding scientific precision to a treatment that currently relies mainly on physician experience and skill.